This invention relates to an assembly device for firmly binding bunched cables by means of a plastic fastener comprising a tension band of indeterminate length provided with transverse ribs or serrations and a locking clasp which interacts with the band and is made from a hard-flexible plastic material. Such a fastener is known from German Patent No. 35 25 351. The clasp has an opening in it through which the tension band is fed and two mutually opposite catching tongues, which interact with the transverse ribs or serrations on the band to lock it in place.
An assembly device for use with a fastener of this type is known from EP 0 303 723. This device essentially comprises a housing having a receiving part for holding a wound roll of the tension band, an opening for the exit and re-entry of the tension band, a guide channel for feeding the tension band to the opening, a further channel, arranged above the band guide channel, for feeding locking clasps to a position in front of the exit opening of the tension band, and a cutter, located behind the clasp, for severing the band ends projecting out of the locking clasp.
In this device, a disadvantage is that the locking clasps have to be magazined, i.e., stacked one on top of the other, on a special rod, and then pushed into the guide channel for the clasps so that they can be urged forward by means of spring(s) and transferred into a head part that is pivotally mounted to the housing in order to position a locking clasp in the proper place in front of the exit for the tension band.
Furthermore, the tension band has to be pushed by hand through its guide channel, and, after it is wrapped around the bunch of cables and its tip threaded into the clasp, it has to be pulled back again by hand before the tensioned band can be cut off by the cutter.
An object of the present invention therefore is to provide such an assembly device in which the locking clasps, connected to one another by frangile bonding webs so that they can be torn off one by one, can be inserted into the assembly device in the same form as they are produced in an injection-molding machine and advanced into a locking position and, furthermore, that transporting of the tension band through the housing is easier for the user.